Conversations

The Conversation System enables realistic, emergent dialogue between any Characters, whether they are players or NPCs. Designed for immersion, Story’s system leverages dynamic generation, memory context, and world awareness to simulate natural interactions across the world.

Natural Language Generation

Rather than using rigid dialogue trees, Story generates dialogue dynamically based on:

• The speaker’s CharacterContext (personality, traits, quirks)

• Their location, role, and current events

• Active or passive memories

• Relevant lore keywords tied to the conversation

• Mood and past interaction history

This makes every dialogue context-sensitive and capable of evolving over time.

Character-to-Character Dialogue

Conversations can occur:

• Between NPCs

• Between NPCs and players

Story handles:

• Dialogue intent parsing

• Response formulation based on relationship and recent interactions

• Tone and emotional variance in output (e.g., sarcasm, hesitance)

Proximity-Based Radiant Conversations

Characters may spontaneously speak when:

• Another character enters their proximity radius

• A time or schedule triggers a conversation routine

• A shared memory or topic of interest is relevant to both

• The environment or world events prompt a reaction (e.g., after a festival or disaster)

This supports ambient world-building and makes NPCs feel aware of each other’s presence, not just the player.

Memory + Relationship Updates

When characters converse:

• A summary memory is optionally saved (per participant)

• The system tracks:

  • What was said

  • How it was received (via power/significance heuristics)

  • Whether a relationship should shift

This allows characters to recall prior exchanges:

“You were kind to me last time. I remember that.”

Context Reactions

Dialogue can reference:

• Recent events (e.g. “The festival was lovely, wasn’t it?”)

• Other characters ("I heard Emelnie’s been avoiding the chapel.")

• Known lore ("They say elves still walk the forests beyond Lys’Athara...")

This works even between NPCs, allowing them to discuss lore, relationships, or politics naturally and without prompting.